Prepare To Be Shocked

You Are "Silent Night"

Silent night, holy night All is calm, all is bright Round yon Virgin, Mother and Child Holy infant so tender and mild Sleep in heavenly peace You never forget that Christmas is about the birth of Christ. Santa and eggnog are just gravy

As it happens, I think "Silent Night" is okay, but my Top 5 Christmas hymns include:

"O Come, O Come Emmanuel" (if I had to choose, my absolute favorite)
"What Child Is This" (to the tune of "Greensleeves" - which I am quite prepared to believe was penned by Henry VIII)
"Angels We Have Heard On High"
"The Coventry Carol" (which one almost never hears anymore 'round here - all that talk of Herod's rage is probably too offensive)
"Angels, From the Realms of Glory"

See a pattern here? Old and Sacred. Can't go wrong.

This isn't to say that I don't like any of the more modern and/or secular stuff (although there is a good bit of it that I simply can't stand). Rayther, as the little blurb above says, all of that is just gravy. (By the way, no Lynn, you're not the only one who likes "The Carol of the Bells.")

And while we're on the subject, can I just say here and now that I am sick and tired of people who swoon all over the "Halleluja" Chorus from Handel's Messiah? I mean, it's a very good coronation anthem and all, but a) it is more appropriate to Easter and b) there are plenty of other choruses in the oratorio which, IMHO, are just as good, if not better. Listen to some of the rest of the piece! (My favorite for the season happens to be "For Unto Us A Child Is Born" although I'm also quite partial to the song "O Thou That Tellest Good Tidings To Zion". I recently bought a CD of a recording by Trevor Pinnock and the English Concert from back in the 80's and I'm quite pleased with it.)

Yips! to Lawren for starting this rant.

UPDATE: Parallel minds, Dept. I started reading this post by Annika and didn't get half way through the first verse of the New International Version of Isaiah, Chapter 40 before I started hearing Handel's treatment of if. As a King James Version devotee, I was beginning to get a bit maddened by the clash of translations until I scrolled a bit farther down. Amen, indeed.